A rail vehicle transportation system may include tracks or rails over which rail vehicles travel. These tracks may cross routes of other transportation systems, such as road or highway systems over which automobile and/or pedestrian traffic may pass. To prevent collisions between rail vehicles and automobiles, a crossing warning system having lights and/or lights and crossing gates may be provided at locations where the tracks intersect a road. The crossing warning system is configured to warn automobiles and/or pedestrian traffic of an approaching train.
The crossing warning system may utilize one or more of a variety of techniques to determine when a rail vehicle is approaching. In various embodiments, the crossing warning system uses a track detection circuit that detects the presence of the rail vehicle as it approaches the crossing. However, improper or poor calibration of the track detection circuit may impede performance and accuracy of the ability of the crossing warning system to detect the rail vehicle. Further, the performance and accuracy of the crossing warning system may deteriorate over time. For example, foreign object debris (FOD), such as tree leaves, snow, or materials escaping from rail cars may accumulate on the tracks over time. The FOD may confuse the crossing warning system by fouling the track detection circuit. The FOD and/or the improper calibration may falsely indicate that a vehicle is approaching when no vehicle is present, or fail to provide the desired amount of warning time to automobiles or pedestrian traffic. False predictions are undesirable because of the unnecessary delay caused to motorists, and because the warning times may tempt impatient motorists to drive around crossing gates and/or disregard audible or visible warnings if the motorists do not see any rail vehicles approaching after some period of time. Failing to accurately predict arrival time of an approaching rail vehicle may be undesirable.
Crossing warning systems and track detection circuits are also difficult and costly to maintain. For example, the FOD may require maintenance personnel to visit the crossing and/or a portion of the track surrounding the crossing to clear the FOD. Further, the tracks may require inspection with specialized equipment to locate and/or clear the FOD. Further still, the portion of track may span several miles, thus, increasing the amount of time consumed by the maintenance personnel thereby increasing the cost of operating the crossing.